Sylvia Plath’s Fascination with Bees
The social organization of the apiary gave Sylvia Plath a tool for examining her aesthetic self, even as her personal world slipped into disarray.
Should Readers Trust “Inaccuracy” in Memoirs about Genocide?
To what extent do errors undermine life writing? The question is an urgent one when that writing is testimony to the genocidal actions of the Khmer Rouge.
Layers and Landmarks at the Argive Heraion
Using text analysis tools such as JSTOR's Constellate helps archaeologists see how the meanings and interpretations of heritage sites have changed over time.
Fruit and Veg: The Sexual Metaphors of the Renaissance
Using peach and eggplant emojis as shorthand for sex may seem like a new thing, but Renaissance painters were experts at using produce to imply intercourse.
Tuskegee University’s Audio Collections
The archives of the historically Black Tuskegee University recently released recordings from 1957 to 1971, with a number by powerful civil rights leaders.
Halloween Stories
Why are Victorians the default haunted house, what do ghosts have to do with the imagination, and why do we like to be scared?
“Tell Me about a Complicated Man”: A Homer Reading List
The amount of scholarship on Homer and his works can be daunting. We've created this introductory reading list to help guide your explorations.
Jane Birkin’s Famous Love (Sex) Song
How the songs of the 1960s and ’70s captured the sexual liberation of women.
The Concert That Promised a Thousand Years of Peace
Guru Maharaj Ji, the teenage leader of the Divine Light Mission, was poised to usher in a new era. His huge Houston gathering proved to do anything but.
Kahlil Gibran: Godfather of the “New Age”
Published in 1923, The Prophet became a perpetual best-seller, birthed a genre, and marked the poet as retrograde, sentimental, and florid.